New to WMA, torn between Imperial Romans and Alexandrian Greeks

[Xenocidal Maniac]

Hello!  Some of you here may know me from Tactical Command.  I'm new to Warmaster.  Got interested in it via WMF, read the WMA rulebook and was so inspired by the rules and the wonderful 10mm historical ranges out there, I decided to build and paint a WMA army!

Looking through the armies, the two that greatly appeal to me are Imperial Romans, with their tough as nails Legions, and the Alexandrian Greeks with their Phalanxes, Hoplites, and hard-hitting Cavalry.

I'm also intrigued by a Crusader army, however, I'm thinking I may save that for down the road.  (In any event, I can't find Warmaster Medieval anywhere)

I know that at the end of the day this is always a personal decision, but does anyone have arguments for or against the above-mentioned armies?  From a tactical standpoint, I like the idea of phalanxes backed by tough cavalry.  It also seems like it could be challenging with the reduced battle-line frontage of the phalanxes.  On the other hand, the hard-hitting Romans could be fun... and, hey, they're Romans.  Although I could see such a straightforward infantry based army getting stale.

Oh, also recommendations on which manufacturer to go with are appreciated!  At the moment, I really like Magister Militum's line but am open to suggestions.

Would love to hear thoughts!  Thank you!

[andys]

Get both, you know you want to 

That's the beauty of Warmaster/10mm figures, it's easy to quickly build large forces, which also don't take up a lot of storage space.

[Xenocidal Maniac]

Ha!  Very true, and eventually I am certain I will have both.  For the moment, however, it's one or the other.  I'd like to shoot for 2,000 points for now. If you had to choose, which way would you go and why?

[jchaos79]

Hi Xenocidial Maniac,

I recommend you that you should go for the army you feel more comfortable with, or the ones you enjoy more the period. This way the enthusiasm of collecting it and painting it will keep high and you will finish your project.... have few games and go for the other

But I give  you also some reasons and comments,

About your gaming group...

Depends on the people you usually play should be good go for romans or for helenics. If your gruop like to recreat battles then the choice will depend on the other armies of your mates. Romans have a good position in this way because Imperial Roman use to face a wide variety of different armies.

About the army list...

In this way, I recommend you go for Alexandrian greek because once you build up an army is easy to buy a couple of extra units (like elephant, etc...) and build up another list like Succesors (diadoc wars). Also with a little effort you could expand your figure collection and have some list like classic greek, Pyrrus army, syracusian, peloponnesian or even spartan quite easy.

Roman fashion figures are more rigid to grow your army into new armylists.

About the warfare & tactics...

Alexander y Roman are very different player style. So I recommend you go for the army that fit your style of game better.

Alexander army is fun because they have to move phalanx, and that is not easy in warmaster (neither in other warmges too!). So it is a challange for you as a player. You also need to combine this arm with a scarce but powerfull cavalry, so winning a game should need some experience in warmaster game, some luck and quite strategy. Due to this I recommend you go for Alexandrian army if you have experience with warmaster historical or warmaster (fantasy). Anyway be prepare to loose some battles until you get use with the different arms of  your army.

Roman cohorts are maybe more easy to play with, more defensive and more reliable than phalanx. So I recommend it to you if you are new in the game. Anyway, playing with Romans is always very fun and pleasant, also there are plenty of films out there that could motivate you to keep painting and collecting such army!!

About the figures available...

Depends a lot on your taste and the money you want to invest.

There is a catalogue here made with the intention of orient and choose figures, talk about the quality and utility of them, size comparison and also as a painting guide. It is intended as a living catalogue grow on the experience and collection of all of you. Maybe you could collaborate or benefit from it

http://www.forum.specialist-arms.com/index.php?board=63.0
http://www.forum.specialist-arms.com/index.php?topic=4117.0
http://www.forum.specialist-arms.com/index.php?topic=4118.0

Anyway and focusing in your armies, here it goes my suggestion,

Roman
In my opinion the best figures are Perrin roman army, but I am not sure if you could buy it actually.
I would go for Steve Barber romans, as core units of the army and use Magister millitum or Pendraken to fill the gaps like cavalry or units to be differenciate quicly in the battle filed like veteran legionares.
There are other manufacturers like Irregular (lovely cavalry), old glory (nice detail), baggage trains (for allied troops), Van Dyck miniatures (beautiful bagages and wagons ideal for markers, command bases or encampents for scenarios), or Newline designs (to give variety)

Alexandre
In my opinion the best figures for phalanx are old glory ( I should upload some pics in the catalgue in the following days if you do not know the figures). They are lacking of Sarissas, but you could get them in pendraken [PEN] GRE13 - Pikes 30mm long 0.7mm wire
Again Magister millitum, pendraken, New line designs or Irregular will give persian allied light cavaly, light infantry allies, helenic cavalry and the other units to fill your armylist with your personal taste.

Have fun diving through the manofacturers and finding the figures that best fit your way of painting.


About your painting style...

If you do not mind to paint a lot of units very similar go for Romans.

If you like to have varity and you loose interest in a project involving to paint the same figure over and over again, then go for Alexandrian army.


Hope my thought helps you, keep us inform of your choice and share your painting progress and games around!!







 

[jchaos79]

I'm also intrigued by a Crusader army, however, I'm thinking I may save that for down the road.  (In any event, I can't find Warmaster Medieval anywhere)

Just a note about crusade army... it is great to play with medieval, collect and paint... But IMHO Kingdom of Jerusalen is the worst armylist design in WM, WMA, WMA Armies and WMM. How this list could pass the playtest, and the one who write it... did he understood the warmaster mechanins? (rethoric questions  )

 

http://www.forum.specialist-arms.com/index.php?topic=3552.msg28361#msg28361

Well I do not want jeopardize your threat about Romans and Alexandry army

[andys]

As jchaos79 says, if you want variety of painting, go for the Greeks, especially if you're new to Warmaster. I find it a bit boring to paint lots of units with the same colour scheme. Although you can get a bit of a production line going. We don't want you getting put off the game with your first army, do we?! 

In the end it's down to your individual tastes for putting the army together though. I personally don't like painting cavalry too much - but on the other hand there's only 12 figures to paint to make a unit, as opposed to 24/30 for an infantry unit. I try to break up painting large numbers of similar units by doing 3 units, then "treating" myself to painting a few characters or an artillery unit.

I've just finished painting 6 crossbow units for Dogs of War. Fortunately they all have different colour schemes, so it was less of a chore than having all 6 the same. I'm glad they are finished, well apart from the basing!

[Edmund2011]

Hi welcome to the forum and WM

If can't choose between Macedonians or Romans, think in the armies of your opponents use (if they have Achamenid Persians the choice is easy .

Tactics and options are different, and both challenging.

I recommend to begin with 1000pts army (not expensive and good to handle the painting), and grow from there. How many points do you have in mind?

[jchaos79]

Found this video

http://www.mashpedia.com/Imperial_Roman_army

Number 9

[jchaos79]

Included in the catalog
http://www.forum.specialist-arms.com/index.php?topic=4118.msg32213#msg32213

Old glory - phalangites
Magister militum - Greek hoplite command

Maybe could be of interest

[Xenocidal Maniac]

I intended to thank everyone for their kind replies but I never got around to it.  In fact, my mother bought a 1,000 point Roman army for me for Christmas!  I had mentioned it to her, and she is a big fan of Roman history, so she was also interested.  It looks like I am going Roman!  The army will be fun to play with and will be a nice thing to remember my mom by someday.

Thank you again for all of your help!  I'll post army pics and battle reports once I get things going.

[Lex]

Get your mom to play too ?

[jchaos79]

Nice, romans. Looking forward to your pics!

[andys]

I intended to thank everyone for their kind replies but I never got around to it.  In fact, my mother bought a 1,000 point Roman army for me for Christmas!  I had mentioned it to her, and she is a big fan of Roman history, so she was also interested.  It looks like I am going Roman!  The army will be fun to play with and will be a nice thing to remember my mom by someday.

Thank you again for all of your help!  I'll post army pics and battle reports once I get things going.

Pendraken?

[Xenocidal Maniac]

Magister Millitum.

[Aquahog]

Good Stuff!